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Op-Ed: City Council Progressive Reform Caucus Calls For Action On Chicago's Pension Crisis

The Chicago City Council Progressive Reform Caucus released the following statement on Friday calling on the mayor and council members to face up to the city's pension crisis.

Chicago’s
thousands of employees keep their promise to our city. But will our city keep its promise to them? This is the question the city council and
the mayor must face.

There is plenty of talk about a
looming pension crisis. But this is a manufactured crisis. It is the
result of decades of failure on the part of city leaders to meet
longstanding fiscal obligations. It represents a failure to make timely,
regular and full payments into the city’s 7 pension funds. And it is a
failure arising from mismanagement and possible corruption in the
oversight of those funds.

The city’s past strategy has been to
delay payments to the fund to keep that cash available for other
expenses. However, the longer you delay, the deeper the hole you dig.

Neither
the present city council nor the mayor created this situation. Nor is
this backlog of pension fund payments the fault of any of the city
employees or the unions or professional organizations that represent
them.

Pensions are contractually agreed upon obligations.
The city of Chicago as an employer is bound to make its regularly
scheduled contributions. They are supposed to be on an equal priority
basis to any other obligations such as making payroll or paying the city’s other bills. So while neither the unions nor the mayor nor the council created the problem, it falls to all to arrive at a just
solution.

Who pays if the city defers or defaults on
such obligations? No surprise here--it is the taxpayers--especially the
homeowners--who will shoulder increases to try to play catch-up.

The
Progressive Reform Caucus proposes that the mayor and the city council
face up now to this situation. The longer we wait, the worse the debt
will grow. To organize this process, we recommend that the council
convene a special panel which includes the representatives of the city’s
employees as well as fiscal agencies, fund managers and elected
officials, to create a plan to dig out of this mess and ensure a secure
retirement for all city employees at all levels. This plan must include
identifying new sources of revenue that do not rely on the property tax.
This discussion must involve the public.

Our approach must
take into account the long-term fiscal health of the city. It would be
immoral to cut pensions. And it would not affect simply the retirees.
Reducing promised retirement income for the thousands of Chicago
residents who would be hit by such a move would damage the city’s
economic stability. Retirees depend upon these contractually guaranteed
benefits for their health and well-being. A reduction in retirement
income means they have less money to support small businesses, keep
their homes up, and take care of themselves and their families. We
submit that this is a quality-of-life impact upon the entire city—not
merely upon those directly affected. Moreover pension-cutting would be a
blot on the reputation and credibility of our city and its ability to
manage its affairs with integrity.

Who are the employees
affected by the current negligent approach? They are our sanitation
workers, firefighters, police, parks and recreation and library staffs,
our city services workers--the people who provide you your licenses,
your stickers, your permits--in short the people who keep the city
working, safe, clean and delivering services and programs. If you want
top-notch, well-trained people providing these vital functions, you
offer the promise of a secure retirement as part of the benefits of the
job. And you can not turn around later and refuse to honor those
promises.

If there was ever an issue on which the mayor and city council members need to work collaboratively and listen attentively to
public input, this is it. This is a complex problem which requires an
inclusive and respectful stance on the part of elected officials. The
reality is that we will all be impacted by this issue, and therefore we
should all have input and work with transparency and openness in order
to craft a plan with optimal opportunities for genuine public
participation.

Every city employee, from the men and women who
fight our fires to the ones who answer our 9-1-1 calls, to the ones who
read stories to our kids in the libraries, to those who clean up the
streets and alleys and flush out the sewers--all of them protect the
quality of life of all of us. How can we do less for them? Time to put
our heads together, Chicago, listen to each other, from the firehouse to
the schoolhouse to City Hall. It will require discipline, respect and
careful planning. But together, we can solve this.